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WKU News

Launching a Business as Your First Real Job

Author: Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation

Author: Monday, November 26th, 2018

From making videos for fun during college to winning awards as a full-fledged video production company, WKU alumni Sam Kirby and Will Berry provided helpful advice and insight on the ups and downs of becoming entrepreneurs as their first career moves after college during the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation's Entrepreneur Speaker Series, held in Grise Hall on November 13.

Berry and Kirby founded VidMonster Productions even before graduating from WKU because they enjoyed making videos for fun. They eventually rented office space in Bowling Green and then went about the important work of securing licensing, insurance, and trademarks.

VidMonster has been a source of storytelling for the Bowling Green community. They provide an array of affordable video production services to a large number of clients. VidMonster has also won awards for Best of Show, Sales Material or Best Pitch, Anything Goes, and Social Media in the 2018 Professional Marketing Association Markie Awards.

"Our business plan is a living breathing document. We are constantly changing things to better our business.”

For two weeks they communicated about what they wanted their business to look like and developed a solid business plan. Keeping their “why” in mind and establishing a business plan and marketing plan before fully launching VidMonster, Kirby and Berry were more confident in the future success of their business. They continuously update their business plan to ensure they are listening to their customers and the marketplace as a whole, as well as finding potential ways to expand their services. It allows them to stay focused, excited and master specific areas rather than being a “jack of all trades.”

“Failure is the world’s best teacher.”

Kirby and Berry made sure to explain that success will not always come first. Of course there will be some wins with being an entrepreneur, but understand that there will be some loses. Business owners should let those failures motivate them to work harder and listen more to the feedback. That is why celebrating the wins and ups within the company, so the downs will be easier to swallow. Also success is not going to happen overnight. Future entrepreneurs should know that most successful small businesses took five to six years to excel.

“It’s always so gratifying to have alumni come in and showcase how they use what they’ve learned, surprises, and failures. Sam and Will are doing great work, and I appreciate that they provide such a realistic view of the start-up process.”